Thursday, January 31, 2008

Now I will readily admit that I am a big football fan. I love hanging out with the folks at my favorite bar, drinking beer, bull-shitting, and watching football on Sundays. For my money, this is a great way to relax for a few hours.

That being said, however, I am really ready for the Super Bowl to be over and done with already. While most football fans have been thinking about/dealing with the Super Bowl for the last month or so, those of us in the Phoenix area have been dealing with it for over a year now! As you probably know, the big game is here this year.

Anyway, now that we're down to the last few days before the game we have the added fun of all the fans and celebs descending on the Valley to see and to be seen. As I have mentioned before, Phoenix traffic is bad enough to begin with, but with the addition of thousands of out-of-towners who are here specifically to party . . . well, let's just say that my normal low level of tolerance for idiots has been worn away completely. I swear, if it weren't for that whole "getting arrested" thing, I would seriously consider going up to Scottsdale (where most of the celebs and trendies are) and just start cracking people's knee-caps with my cricket bat. Not enough to kill them, but certainly enough to make them want to get the hell out of town. Unfortunately, I want to hang out with friends and watch the game - hence you see my problem. The cracking of knee-caps would make me oh so happy, but would almost certainly result in my missing the game because of said incarceration. Not to mention the fact that Journey would be none too happy with me.

So, I guess I'll just have to put up with these wastes of oxygen for a few more days. I mean, what else can I really (and legally) do?

On top of the idiots, there's also the fact that I'm just not that interested in either teams this year. I don't like the Patriots, and I don't care about the Giants. Yes, I know the Pats are going for the unbeaten season record, but they also seem so damn arrogant that I just can't get behind them. That, and the fact that a good number of their "fair-weather" fans are assholes certainly doesn't help. As for the Giants, well . . . actually I've already said it: I simply don't care about them. Near total indifference. Who knows, maybe I'll get into the game more as I'm hanging with friends, but for now my general statement on this match up is "meh". My guess is we'll have pretty close to a repeat of the Pats/Giants game which closed out the regular season. I would like the Giants to win just to spite the Pats and those bandwagon fans, but I'm predicting that the Pats will come away with the win. Final score: Pats 35, Giants 31.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

This ain't exactly hell.It sure as hell ain't heaven.I love you like the dickens and I miss you like the Devil.I guess I'll do my time waitin' in this purgatory line.Angels here are wearin' fancy new perfume,and all the bread's unleavened.Well I guess it'll have to do till I find you.I don't know what I'm doin' here or whyI'm waitin' in this purgatory line.

I ain't exactly up.I ain't gone too far down.I'm lookin' for some answers and there ain't no one around.I guess I'll lose my mind waitin' in this purgatory line.If Jesus walked on water then where'd he get them shoes?It just keeps gettin' harder to lose these walkin' blues.I want you to come and take me home for a while.Save me from this purgatory line.

Sometimes I can laugh.Other times I cry.It ain't exactly funny. My feet are both on fire.I guess they'll just burn for a while waitin' in this purgatory line.Lovin' you is so easy, but waitin' here just ain't.I know I can be patient, but please don't hesitate to cross my mind.That's all I've got for a while.Waitin' in this purgatory line.

I have become increasingly annoyed with Rolling Stone's website and their music reviews. They seem to have fallen into that trap of believing that they know more about music than everyone else. Admittedly, they know a lot, but sometimes lately they seem to be dismissing a lot of fringe/alt music as not worth listening to because it's fringe or alt. Now, if you want to say that an album isn't popular because it's fringe, that's one thing. But so say that the music is bad because it's not mainstream is just stupid. Sadly, this seems to be what RS has been doing with increasingly regularity recently.

Because of this, I went in search of a new source of music reviews. I came across Metacritic.com, which has actually been around for nearly 10 years. How I've never heard about it before is beyond me, but there it is. Anyway, one of the things I like the most about Metacritic is the fact that it's actually a compiler site. They collect reviews from a bunch of different places and put them together in a single place. This, of course, includes RS, but they also pull reviews from Billboard, The Onion, Village Voice, and many others. From these collected reviews, they give a "critics score" (from 0 to 100). Best of all, they actually explain how they go about calculating this "metascore" so you can be informed about their reasoning/logic. And of course they open things up to public review as well. This is a little more simplistic (or, rather, standard) as the "user" score is a strict average of user assigned scores (0-10).

So far I've only checked out Metacritic's music section, but they also have reviews for films, DVDs, television, books, and games. So if you're looking for reviews on something, think about checking them out. At the very least, it'll give you a quick glance at what people are saying!

Friday, January 25, 2008

It's official - I'm either losing my mind or there are gremlins hiding in my office. This morning I went to look for a book I had ordered a couple months back and couldn't find it! I know I ordered it - I have the receipt and confirmation email. And this is a supplier I've used many times before, so I know they are reliable. And I'm pretty sure I remember it arriving and getting put on my bookshelf. But it sure as hell ain't there now! I know I didn't loan it out to someone - I have made a habit of keeping a list of who in the department I have loaned books to in case I need to get one back for some reason.

So, this leaves me with two basic conclusions: my mind is going or gremlins.

Luckily I don't need for a few weeks yet, but as I have some open, unscheduled time this morning I was planning on getting some it read ahead of time. Guess fuckin' not!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

I got emailed this video earlier today. While I'm not going to personally take a side on the "author's" argument at this time, I did think the video was worth passing on if you haven't seen it before. I'm abstaining for the time being simply because I just now watched it and want to take some time to think it over before I make any kind of real judgement on it. But give it a look and see what you think. Prior warning, it's a little long at almost 10 minutes - so be prepared.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Why do some SUV owners drive like the thing is made of crystal and will break with the slightest bump or jostle? Isn't part of the point of buying a SUV to have a vehicle which can withstand some punishment without any real problem? You know, be able to protect you? Maybe I'm just missing something here.

This morning I got caught behind one of these particular SUV owners. For whatever reason, they decided they had to creep over a speed bump. While severely annoying, I guess I can let this go. Maybe they had a full cup of coffee or a sleeping child in the SUV and didn't want to upset things. But when they did the same thing with a slight bump in the road at the next intersection - and when I slight, I'm talking a "bump" of less than an inch in height - I began to suspect that they were just an idiot! I have seen people in wheelchairs take on this particular little challenge with more aggression than the idiot in front of me! I've also seen those same people in wheelchairs get through the intersection faster than this jackass.

Once they were finally through the intersection, however, they had absolutely no problem driving aggressively. Weaving in and out of traffic, speeding, failing to come a complete (or even an incomplete) stop before making a right turn at a red light. These were no problem whatsoever. A speed bump and an empty intersection with another little bump? These apparently took as much effort and skill as climbing Mt. Everest - ass naked and blindfolded!

And I was so hoping to start today in a mood other than "severely annoyed" - guess not.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Okay - so I actually do know where it is: in the mail. I finally found a good one at a reasonable price online and am now just waiting for it show up. But that's beside the point.

I was really wishing I had this morning at about 2:00 AM. That's when a bunch of girls (undergrads, and likely drunk ones at that, by the sound of them) pulled up outside one of the buildings in my apartment complex, all jumped out of the car, laughing and shouting at each other, leaving their music on at a fairly impressive level. What the fuck?!? Why are you out until 2:00-fuckin'-AM on a Sunday? And what makes you think that I'm interested in listening to your music at that time of "day" (not that I would ever listen to the kind of music they were playing!).

This went on for about 10 minutes or so, which doesn't sound like a long time, but when you sleep as little as I do to begin with, every minute counts, damnit. I was actually getting ready to either shout something out the window or call the police's noise complaint number when they finally finished whatever kind of prolonged (and loud) good-bye ceremony drunk undergrad girls participate in and things quited down.

The end result of all this is that I had a much harder time getting up at my usual 5:00 AM than I normally do, and have spent much of the day being slightly agrevated by the whole thing. Ah, if only I could have legally gotten away with smashing in their head-lights with my soon-to-arrive cricket bat, the world would be a much better place - for me at least!